Image server and image display system

• US 20030204849A1
• Filed: 04/24/2003
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Mikio
• Granted Patent: US 7,221,901 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6379 directed to encoder , e.g. for requesting a lower encoding rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The image display system for transmitting a movie picture conformable to reproducing ability of a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, comprises an image database for recording a plurality of movie pictures associated with the identification information intrinsic to the movie picture, and the number of pixels or an image size of the movie picture or the type of the mobile phone, a receiving device for receiving the identification information for identifying the movie picture from the mobile phone and the information involving the image size or the type of the mobile phone, a retrieval device for retrieving the corresponding movie picture from the image database, using the identification information of the received movie picture and the image size or the type of the mobile phone, and a transmitting device for reading out and transmitting the retrieved movie picture from the movie database to the mobile phone. Thus, in the image server and the image display system, the rich contents of a movie picture can be automatically and efficiently retrieved and transmitted to a mobile phone with lower reproducing ability.

Claims

1. An image server for transmitting a movie picture to a mobile terminal, wherein the image server retrieves a movie picture from an image database where a plurality of movie pictures are recorded, using identification information of the movie picture received from the mobile terminal and an image size of the movie picture including at least one of a number of pixels, a gradation, a frame rate, a compression format, a reproducible bandwidth, or a type of the mobile terminal in terms of reproducing ability of the mobile terminal, and transmits the movie picture to the mobile terminal.

2. An image server for converting an original movie picture into a movie picture conformable to reproducing ability of a mobile terminal and transmitting the movie picture, the image server comprising:

an image converting device which retrieves the original movie picture from an original image database where a plurality of original movie pictures are recorded, according to identification information of the movie picture received from the mobile terminal, and converts the retrieved original movie picture into the movie picture conformable to the reproducing ability of the mobile terminal, using at least one of a number of pixels, a gradation, a frame rate, a compression format, a reproducible band width, and an image size of the movie picture received from the mobile terminal, or a type of the mobile terminal; and

a transmitting device which transmits the converted movie picture to the mobile terminal.

3. An image display system for transmitting a movie picture conformable to reproducing ability of a mobile terminal, the image display system comprising:

a mobile terminal which automatically transmits to an image server an image size of the movie picture reproducible on the mobile terminal including at least one of a number of pixels, a gradation, a frame rate, a compression format, and a reproducible bandwidth, or a type of the mobile terminal including reproducing ability, and displays on a display device the movie picture in accordance with the image size or the type of the mobile terminal received from the image server; and

the image server which retrieves the corresponding movie picture from an image database where a plurality of movie pictures are recorded, using the image size of the movie picture or the type of the mobile terminal received from the mobile terminal, and transmits the retrieved movie picture to the mobile terminal.